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DOPLŇUJÍCÍ CVIČENÍ K UČEBNICÍM

ANGLIČTINY PRO VÝUKU VÝSLOVNOSTI NA ZÁKLADNÍ ŠKOLE

Diplomová práce

Studijní program:

Studijní obory:

Autor práce:

Vedoucí práce:

N7503 – Učitelství pro základní školy

7503T009 – Učitelství anglického jazyka pro 2. stupeň základní školy 7503T043 – Učitelství německého jazyka pro 2. stupeň základní školy Bc. Pavla Kroupová

PhDr. Marcela Malá, M.A., Ph.D.

Liberec 2015

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SUPPLEMENTARY PRONUNCIATION EXERCISES TO PRIMARY AND

LOWER-SECONDARY ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS

Diploma thesis

Study programme:

Study branches:

Author:

Supervisor:

N7503 – Teacher training for primary and lower-secondary schools 7503T009 – Teacher Training for Lower Secondary Schools - English 7503T043 – Teacher training for lower-secondary school. Subject - German Language

Bc. Pavla Kroupová

PhDr. Marcela Malá, M.A., Ph.

Liberec 2015

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Prohlášení

Byla jsem seznámena s tím, že na mou diplomovou práci se plně vzta- huje zákon č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, zejména § 60 – školní dílo.

Beru na vědomí, že Technická univerzita v Liberci (TUL) nezasahuje do mých autorských práv užitím mé diplomové práce pro vnitřní potřebu TUL.

Užiji-li diplomovou práci nebo poskytnu-li licenci k jejímu využití, jsem si vědoma povinnosti informovat o této skutečnosti TUL; v tom- to případě má TUL právo ode mne požadovat úhradu nákladů, které vynaložila na vytvoření díla, až do jejich skutečné výše.

Diplomovou práci jsem vypracovala samostatně s použitím uvedené literatury a na základě konzultací s vedoucím mé diplomové práce a konzultantem.

Současně čestně prohlašuji, že tištěná verze práce se shoduje s elek- tronickou verzí, vloženou do IS STAG.

Datum:

Podpis:

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, PhDr. Marcela Malá, M.A., Ph.D., for providing useful suggestions, her constructive comments and support throughout this work. Generally, I would like to thank her for her guidance and for all the invested time in the supervision.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mgr. Radomíra Scholzová who enabled me to conduct the research at Základní škola a základní umělecká škola Liberec, Jabloňová. I also wish to thank the survey participants who willingly shared their precious time to participate in the study.

My family deserves special thanks for supporting me during my studies.

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Anotace

Předmětem této diplomové práce je analyzovat sadu učebnic angličtiny určenou pro základní školy (Project, druhé vydání) z hlediska výuky výslovnosti. Na základě této analýzy jsou navržena doplňující cvičení. Důvodem je snaha ulehčit českým mluvčím, kteří se učí anglicky, osvojit si anglickou výslovnost. Tudíž se autor této práce nezaměřuje pouze na možnou “neúplnost“ učebnic, ale bere v potaz také další faktory, které mohou hrát roli při osvojování si výslovnosti cílového jazyka. Proto při výběru seznamu doplňujících výslovnostním cvičení a aktivit hrály roli také následující faktory: potenciální potíže, kterým by čeští mluvčí učící se anglické výslovnosti mohli čelit; jejich věk a pokročilost či srovnání anglického a českého jazyka. Cílem práce bylo zjistit bylo zjistit efektivity navržených doplňujících cvičení, čehož bylo dosaženo pomocí výzkumu.

Teoretická část se zabývá obecnou terminologií vztahující se k tématu a cílem je také objasnit tematiku týkající se praktické části výzkumu.

Praktická část je zaměřena na analýzu učebnic a na prezentaci výzkumu. Data získaná na základě tohoto výzkumu jsou v této části práce prezentována a analyzována.

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Klíčová slova: výslovnost, fonetika, fonologie, segmentální rovina, suprasegmentální rovina, analýza učebnice, doplňující cvičení

Abstract

The subject matter of the thesis is to analyse a set of primary and lower- secondary English textbooks (Project, Second Edition) from the phonetic point of view and design a list of additional exercises. The reason is to help Czech learners of English to acquire English pronunciation as smoothly as possible. To do so, the author focuses not only on the possible “incompleteness“ of the textbooks but takes also other factors that could play a role when acquiring target language pronunciation. Therefore, factors like difficulties Czech learners may face when acquiring English pronunciation features, their age and language proficiency or Czech and English comparison played a role when making a list of the additional pronunciation exercises and activities. The aim of the thesis was to prove their effectivity, which was done within the research.

The theoretical part deals with clarification of general terminology and subject matter referring to the practical part.

The practical part is focused on the textbooks analysis and research presentation. The data gained within the research are presented and analysed.

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Key words: pronunciation, phonetics, phonology, segmental level, suprasegmental level, textbook analysis, suplementary exercises

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ... 12

2. Theoretical Part ... 13

2.1 The Importance of Pronunciation ... 13

2.2 Teaching Pronunciation... 15

2.2.1 Important Factors... 16

2.2.1.1 Age ... 16

2.2.1.2 Exposure to the Target Language ... 17

2.2.1.3 Motivation ... 19

2.2.1.4 Role of the Native Language ... 20

2.2.2 Differences between Czech and English as a Source of Difficulties for Czech Learners ... 22

2.2.2.1 Segmental Level ... 22

2.2.2.1.1 Vowels ... 22

2.2.2.1.1.1 General Characteristics ... 22

2.2.2.1.1.2 Czech Vowel System ... 26

2.2.2.1.1.3 English Vowel System ... 26

2.2.2.1.1.4 Czech and English Vowel System Comparison ... 27

2.2.2.1.2 Consonants ... 27

2.2.2.1.2.1 General Characteristics ... 27

2.2.2.1.2.2 Czech Consonant System ... 30

2.2.2.1.2.3 English Consonants System ... 31

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2.2.2.1.2.4 Czech and English Consonant System

Comparison ... 31

2.2.2.2 Suprasegmental Level ... 33

2.2.2.2.1 General Characteristics ... 33

2.2.2.2.2 Suprasegmental Features Choice ... 36

2.2.2.2.3 Intonation ... 37

2.2.2.2.3.1 General Characteristics ... 37

2.2.2.2.3.2 English Intonation ... 37

2.2.2.2.3.3 Czech and English Intonation Patterns Comparison ... 39

2.2.3 Integrating Pronunciation into English Lessons ... 39

2.3 Methodology of the Work and Pronunciation Teaching Methods ... 42

2.3.1 Methodology of the Work ... 42

2.3.2 Pronunciation Teaching Methods ... 42

3. Practical Part ... 48

3.1 Introduction to the Practical Part ... 48

3.2 Pronunciation Features Likely to Be Difficult to Acquire for Czech Speakers ... 50

3.3 Set of Textbooks Analysis from the Phonetic Point of View ... 51

3.3.1 Project 1 ... 51

3.3.1.1 Students’s Book ... 51

3.3.1.2 Workbook ... 52

3.3.2 Project 2 ... 53

3.3.2.1 Students’s Book ... 53

3.3.2.2 Workbook ... 53

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3.3.3 Project 3 ... 54

3.3.3.1 Students’s Book ... 54

3.3.3.2 Workbook ... 54

3.3.4 Project 4 ... 54

3.3.4.1 Student’s Book ... 54

3.3.4.2 Workbook ... 55

3.3.5 Conclusion ... 55

3.4 Research ... 56

3.4.1 Class Pre- and Post-testing ... 57

3.4.2 Additional Exercises ... 60

3.4.3 Discussion of Findings ... 84

3.4.4 Conclusion ... 88

3.5 List of References... 92

3.6 Appendices ... 99

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11 Table of Figures:

Figure 1 Representation of Vowels (Roach, 1991, p. 13)

Figure 2 Czech Vowel System (Český vokalický systém. FruFru's PhonoWeb [online])

Figure 3 English Vowel System (Ashby, 2005, p. 28)

Figure 4 Speech Organs (Concepcion, De La Cruz and Enriquez, 1994, p. 18) Figure 5 Table of Czech Consonants (Skaličková, 1982, p. 108)

Figure 6 Table of English Consonants (Roach, 1991, p. 62)

Figure 7 Required Knowledge Base for Teaching Pronunciation (Celce- Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin, 2010, p. 44)

Figure 8 Articulation of /æ/ (Hancock, 2012, p. 12)

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12 1. Introduction

Each language is a complex system having its structure, rules and patterns.

Thus, when learning a language, one is exposed to a plenty of areas that are to be acquired. Each language, for example, involves different skills and sub-skills, one of which is pronunciation, the topic of the thesis.

The reason why I have chosen this linguistic area for my diploma thesis is that it seems to be the one that is not given such an importance in language teaching, although acquiring pronunciation is so important and may be an uneasy task for a language learner. Obviously, the process of acquiring accurate pronunciation differs with regard to learner’s age. In compliance with so called Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) “there is a biologically – or more specifically a neurologically – based period, at the onset of puberty, beyond which complete mastery of a second language is no longer possible“ (Bongaerts, Planken und Schils, 1995, p. 31). Thus, Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis favours learning a second language from an early age. In my thesis I have also focused on teaching pronunciation to children visiting primary and lower-secondary schools. An analysis of a set of English textbooks has been the focal point of this study. Specifically, I have chosen the textbooks called Project (Second Edition) because these are one of the most frequently used ones within Czech schools.

The aim of the work is to analyze the Project textbooks from the phonetic point of view and provide supplementary pronunciation exercises and activities (when needed) and measure their effectiveness by means of a research.

As for thesis arrangement of contents, the thesis is divided into two parts – theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with clarification of general

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terminology and subject matter referring to the practical part. The practical part is focused on the textbooks analysis, research and data presentation.

2. Theoretical Part

2.1 The Importance of Pronunciation

There are many reasons why pronunciation should not be given less attention in comparison with teaching / learning grammar or vocabulary. One of these is that the way one pronounces words, the way one speaks, is the first thing that one notices when hearing someone speaking a (foreign) language. Since the first impression is often of great importance in our lives and we only have one chance to make a good first impression, we should take the importance of pronunciation into consideration. What is more, when hearing someone speaking, his or her potential poor vocabulary may not be recognised. Similarly, not only one’s limited vocabulary but also poor grammar may not be noticed if one speaks for a short period of time. The thing that one does notice, though, are speaker’s pronunciation abilities. In addition, the way one speaks, in terms of pronunciation, may affect what people think about speaker’s language competences. These are some of the reasons why pronunciation should be considered as significant as vocabulary and grammar and should be given more attention in language teaching.

Vocabulary and grammar are nearly useless unless one is able to pronounce the words or grammatical structures properly. “I’ve lost my keys.“ – this sentence makes sense when used within particular context. Grammatical structures are used correctly (present perfect used for talking about past actions with a result in the present). Semantically (relating to meaning of the sentence), this sentence is understandable as well. However; despite mastering grammar

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and using suitable vocabulary, one may not be understood unless pronouncing it properly. Imagine a speaker saying /keɪz/ instead of /ki:z/. In that case, it might come to misunderstanding on the basis of the word mispronunciation. Thus, not only grammar and / or lexis, but also pronunciation is shown to be of great importance.

Another reason emphasizing the importance of pronunciaiton is that English spelling often does not correspond with the way words should be pronounced. Although it sometimes does (list is pronounced as /lɪst/), it is not always so. To demonstrate this idea, look at the example below:

learn /lɜːn/

meal /mi:l/

heart /ha:t/

breakfast /ˈbrekfəst/

pear /peə/

great /greɪt/

ear /ɪə/

As one can see, the combination of letters “e“ and “a“ is pronounced differently in each of the words. Thus, apart from learning / teaching vocabulary, one should also emphasise the way it is pronouced.

Pronunciation errors may have various degrees of seriousness. Some of them may not be so serious. Sometimes it can be clear from the context that it has come to mispronunciation. Imagine the following situation. Even if the word leg in a sentence I‘ve broken my leg. was mispronounced as /lek/, for example, the listener should deduce that the word should refer to the lower part of a human body – /leg/. The reasons are as follows. First, there is no such a thing as

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/lek/ and second, the context should indicate how the target word should have been pronounced. On the other hand, there are also such pronunciation errors that may lead even to miscommunication. The most serious errors involve, besides other things, minimal pairs. These are pairs of the words that differ in one phoneme as in think /θɪŋk/ and sink /sɪŋk/. Imagine someone saying /aɪm sɪŋkɪŋ/ instead of /aɪm θɪŋkɪŋ/. Such a situation could result in communication breakdown, as the two words were interchanged. This is another reason to avoid bad pronunciation that may hinder the speaker to convey his message successfully.

All the above mentioned reasons show the importance of pronunciation teaching and prove that this language area should not be neglected within language teaching. To conclude this chapter, Helen Fraser’s statement emphasizing the role of pronunciation has been chosen to do so. She claims that

“with good pronunciation, a speaker is intelligible despite other errors; with poor pronunciation, understanding a speaker will be very difficult, despite accuracy in other areas“ (2000, p. 7).

2.2 Teaching Pronunciation

It has already been mentioned that when planning a lesson many teachers tend to make lexis or grammar the main concern ignoring the fact that pronunciation work should be planned and done, too. Kelly claims that “teachers should regard features of pronunciation as integral to language analysis and lesson planning […]“ because “any analysis of language that disregards or sidelines factors of pronunciation is incomplete“ (2000, p. 13). It means that pronunciation is an inseparable part of each language and, especially at schools, learners should learn it as a whole. Teachers should be those who introduce and

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help them learn such language areas that make each language complete. One of these is pronunciation.

The method preferred in pronunciation teaching nowadays is the communicative approach which Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996, p.

7) describe as the one emphasizing that the main purpose of language teaching, above all, is that learners should be able to communicate. To do so, they should, according to them, acquire what is called intelligible pronunciation. It means that when someone is speaking, the way he or she pronounces words and sentences should be comprehensible to the listeners. In this case, pronunciation can be described as a “tool“ for successful communication. As setting realistic goals is of great importance within language learning, intelligible pronunciation, not native-like pronunciation, is what should probably be the aim of pronunciation teaching at primary and lower-secondary schools. The recently mentioned authors add that a realistic goal fot such learners is to “surpass the threshold level so that their pronunciation will not detract from their ability to communicate“ (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, Goodwin and Griner, 2010, p. 9).

When learning pronunciation there are many factors affecting this process.

As this could be, for the sake of its broadness, a single topic for a diploma thesis, only some factors influencing pronunciation learning have been chosen. These will be mentioned in the following lines.

2.2.1 Important Factors 2.2.1.1 Age

As has already been stated (chapter 1. Introduction, p. 12), age of a learner is claimed to play a role in second language learning. A justification for the different control of the phonology of a foreign language could be the existence

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of so called critical period which, with regard to phonetics, proves that “people beyond the age of puberty do not acquire what has come to be called authentic (native-speaker) pronunciation of the second language“ (Brown, 2000, p. 58).

Supporters of Brown’s theory (such as Leaver, Ehrmann, Shekhtman, 2005, p.

19) believe that children pick up sounds seemingly with much less effort than adults do. Thus, to make use of these facts, teachers should take into consideration that they should deal with pronunciation teaching as soon as possible. Instead, they sometimes claim that pronunciation is to be acquired naturally and do not engage in strategical and planned pronunciation teaching, which is a mistake. To stay objective, the CPH theory is due to the variety of reasons concerning the link between age and language learning / acquisition sometimes considered controversial. However; from the pragmatic point of view and irrespective of the scientific findings, it should be advantageous to learn / teach pronunciation from an early age in order to avoid dealing with potential difficulties later.

2.2.1.2 Exposure to the Target Language

Another factor influencing pronunciation learning is the degree of exposure to the target language that, according to Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (2010, p. 18), besides other factors, determines learners‘ success in language learning. This means that the more often learners come in contact with the language they learn, the better their pronunciation skills should develop.

Length of the L2 exposure plays a role. This has been, for example, proved by a research conducted by Trofimovich and Baker (2007, p. 257). This focuses on acquiring of L2 suprasegmentals by Korean children. The results have shown that after about a year of L2 experience the Korean children did not acquire any

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of the suprasegemntal features tested. However; after approximately eleven years of exposure to the target language Korean adults (being exposed to L2 from childhood) produced almost all of the suprasegmentals tested with native- like accuracy.

Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (1996, p. 16-17) write in their publication that, according to Postovsky’s, Asher’s and Krashen’s theories, language is acquired primarily from comprehensible input before starting to speak. Thus, when learning a language, one should listen to it first of all and only if this happens, he or she should able to produce sounds, words and sentences afterwards. Also Samantray (2005, p. 1) states that L2 learners must go through a period of listening and perceiving the target language without any pressure before they are required to speak. This period, according to her, “allows the learner to internalize the phonology and the sound system of the target language […]“ (Samantray, 2005, p. 1). One should become aware of the fact that this finding is closely related to language teaching methodology. First, one should listen to the target language (this is what is called reception), after that imitation takes place. Subsequently, one should be able to discriminate particular sounds and production comes afterwards. These rules should be strictly observed, especially by the teachers, during the process of pronunciation teaching. Therefore, exposure to the target language is considered crucial factor in language learning or language acquisition. The difference between these two terms is that learning is a conscious process, whereas acquisition proceeds unconsciously. Therefore, it is beneficial to the learners to surround themselves with native speakers of the target language, listen to the music or watch movies

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containing that language, read books, newspaper or other authentic materials, etc. representing the input.

2.2.1.3 Motivation

Generally, people learn better when they want to learn. And if they want to learn, they are motivated. Crookes and Schmidt relate this to second language learning claiming that “motivation has been consistently linked with attitudes toward the community of speakers of the target language, with an interest in interacting with such speakers, and with some degree of self-identification with the target language community“ (1991, p. 470-471). Thus, it is optimal when language learners keep in touch with whatever concerned to the language they learn. What is more, it is also beneficial when they try to understand not only the language but also culture of that community and the community as such.

We can distinguish between two types on motivation – integrative and instrumental. According to Crookes and Schmidt, the integratively motivated learners can be characterized through “positive attitudes toward the target language group and the potential for integrating into that group, or at the very least an interest in meeting and interacting with members of the target language group“ (1991, p. 471-472). The second group, instrumentally motivated learners, according to these authors (1991, p. 472), study a language for more functional reasons as getting a better job or passing a required examination. After defining the two terms, one may come to the conclusion that integrative motivation may be closely linked to intrinsic one and instrumental motivation may be connected with extrinsic one. The reason is that intrinsic motivation comes from within whereas extrinsic motivation is evoked by the conditions one is surrounded by.

Ideally, language learners should be oriented rather integratively because,

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generally, it should be always more effective to do something because we want it, and not because we are supposed to do it in order to reach whatever goals.

All in all, motivation is one of the key factors playing a role in successful learning of a second / foreign language. Oxford, for example, states that motivation “determines the extent of active, personal involvement in foreign or second language learning“ (1999, p. 121). Contrarily, she adds, unmotivated language learners “are insufficiently involved and therefore unable to develop their L2 skills“ (1999, p. 121).

2.2.1.4 Role of the Native Language

The process of learning / acquiring a second language (L2) may be greatly influenced by the nature of the learner’s native language (L1). L1 may affect the use of grammatical structures, vocabulary choice or L2 sound. Thus, when hearing someone speaking a foreign language, it can be sometimes clearly recognized what his / her native language is.

This is due to the interference that is a process that “implies rearrangement of patterns that result from the introduction of foreign elements into the more highly structured domains of language, such as the bulk of phonemic system, a large part of the morphology and syntax, and some areas of the vocabulary“

(Weinreich, 1979, p. 1). It means that within the language interference, aspects of one language, including pronunciation, may be transferred to another one, which may sometimes be undesirable. Weinreich adds (1979, p. 1) that the greater the difference between the two languages (L1 and L2) is, the greater the learning problem may be. To relate this more directly to the purposes of this thesis, it is important to make clear that the more differences there are between L1 (Czech) and L2 (English), concerning the phonological and phonetic system,

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the more prone the learners are to face difficulties in such areas where English and Czech are different. These differences may relate not only to language production (speaking abilities) but also to language perceprion (listening abilities).

In other words, phonological interference occurs because of L2 being filtered through the native language. This idea shapes a main principle of so called Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (abbreviated CAH), which firstly appeared in 1970 as a title of a linguistic article written by Ronald Wardhaugh, who defined CAH as “the claim that the best language teaching materials are based on a contrast of the two competing linguistic systems“ (cited in Robinson, 2013, p. 129). Of course it is beneficial to compare two languages before teaching. The reason is that when doing so, teachers find out where the differences between L1 and L2 are. These, logically, may cause difficulties to learners to learn. Thus, teachers should devote these areas more time and attention.

The influence of L1 on L2 can be either positive as well as negative.

Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (2010, p. 22) claim that L1 can facilitate language learning / acquisition in those areas where the target language is similar (this is called transfer) and interfere in those areas where the target language is different. Thus, interference occurs when a Czech speaker says /sʌm/

instead of /θʌm/. This pronunciation error occurrs on the basis of the Czech and English consonant system difference. In Czech, there is no /θ/, therefore it may be difficult for Czech speakers to pronounce. What they may do is to interchange /θ/ with another consonant existing in their language – for example /s/. Transfer, on the other hand, occurs when Czech speakers pronounce such

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sounds or phonemes (or use suprasegmental features such as intonation) correctly and accurately that are the same in Czech as well as in English.

Thus, the more differences there are between the native and target language, the more apt the language learner is to struggle with difficulties based on L1 and L2 dissimilarities.

2.2.2 Differences between Czech and English as a Source of Difficulties for Czech Learners

The previous chapter demonstrates the importance of L1 when learning / acquiring L2. Primarily, the differences between the native and foreign language are of great importance because, as mentioned above, they may very likely be a source of difficulties for a learner. As this paper deals with teaching English to Czech learners, Czech and English language system will be described so that it comes out where the differences are and what problems Czech speakers may face when learning English. The differences between Czech and English do not involve only individual sounds (segmental level) but also suprasegmental features such as intonation.

2.2.2.1 Segmental Level

In English, as well as in Czech, we distinguish between vowels and consonants that are considered segmental sounds of speech, as opposed to suprasegmental sounds (these will be introduced in chapter 2.2.2.2 Suprasegmental Level).

2.2.2.1.1 Vowels

2.2.2.1.1.1 General Characteristics

According to Roach (2009, p. 10), vowels are considered “sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips“.

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These sounds are produced by resonances in larynx and pharynx, so it can be said, in Kelly‘s words, that they are produced by shaping voiced airstream

“using tongue and lips to modify the overal shape of mouth“ (Kelly, 2000, p.

29). Kelly (2000, p. 29) supports his definition by claiming that when pronouncing vowel sounds such as /ʌ/, /æ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/ or /ə/, one should recognize the changing position of the tongue that in fact does not obstruct the airflow. In contrast to consonants, there is no friction when producing vowels.

Although, as Burleigh and Skandera (2011, p. 31) claim, in most languages there are more consonants than vowels, vowels may be considered predominant. The reasons are as follows. Vowels “carry most of the loudness, pitch, and tone of voice that we perceive in concrete utterances, and since their sound quality varies considerably from region to region, vowels make up most of the characteristics that distinguish different accents of the same language“

(Burleigh and Skandera, 2011, p. 31).

As for vowels categorisation, it has become traditional to represent vowels by means of the four-sided diagram known as Cardinal Vowel quadrilateral (see Figure 1) that, as Roach (1991, p. 13) declares, is recommended by The International Association to do so.

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Figure 1 Representation of Vowels (Roach, 1991, p. 13)

As one can see, we distinguish between close and open vowels and also the mid-positions (close-mid / open-mid or in other terms half-close / half-open) according to “the distance between the tongue and the roof of the mouth“ (Kelly, 2000, p. 5) within the process of their produciton. Kelly defines also front, central and back vowels claiming that these vowels “refer to the part of the tongue“ (Kelly, 2000, p. 5) – specifically, whether the tongue is “pushed forward or pulled back“ (Vowel Quality. Encyclopedia.com [online]). Thus, when one pronounces the vowel /i:/ he or she should realise that the tongue is placed close to the roof of the mouth (close vowel) and the tongue is pushed forward (front vowel).

Sounds consisting of a movement or glide – “a movement of the lips, tongue and jaw“ (Kelly, 2000, p. 34) – from one vowel to another are called diphthongs (e.g. /eə/ or /aɪ/). The word diphthong has its origins in Greek, where di means two and phthong stands for a tone. Each diphthong is consisted of two vowels and their position plays a role. In English the first part of each diphthong,

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as Roach (1991, p. 20) states, is stronger and longer. Skaličková (1982, p. 98) states that duration of the first and the second element of an English diphthong is 2/3 : 1/3. Thus, the first part is twice as long as the second part. Kelly (2000, p.

34) adds it is also louder than the second part but it is not so in all languages. In Czech, for example, as Skaličková claims, “je artikulace obou složek [diftongu]

plně dodržována a auditivní efekt se prakticky neliší od jejich samostatných realizací v jiných pozicích“ (1982, p. 98) – the articulation of the vowel is always the same, no matter what the vowel position is. The articulation stays the same whether vowels occur individually or in a diphthong. She adds (1979, p.

98) that duration of the first and the second element of Czech diphthongs is 1/2 : 1/2; thus, both diphthong components are of the same length.

Unlike Czech, English also contains so called triphthongs (e.g. /aɪə/ or /aʊə/) that are combinations of three vowel sounds. Therefore, they are considered the most complex sounds of English. Similarly to diphthongs, each triphthong is a “glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption“ (Roach, 2009, p. 18). Although diphthongs and triphthongs are sound combinations, Kelly (2000, p. 34) claims that they are considered one sound.

The concrete division of Czech and English vowel system (not including diphthongs or triphthongs) is represented through the following diagrams:

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Figure 2 Czech Vowel System (Český vokalický systém. FruFru's PhonoWeb [online])

Figure 3 English Vowel System (Ashby, 2005, p. 28) 2.2.2.1.1.2 Czech Vowel System

The Czech vocalic system consists of ten vowels and three diphthongs.

The five short vowel sounds are /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, the long ones are /a:/, /e:/, /i:/, /o:/, /u:/. According to Skaličková (1982, p. 65), these are approximately twice as long as the short ones. The three diphthongs are /ou/, /au/ and /eu/ (Czech transcription has been used).

2.2.2.1.1.3 English Vowel System

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The English vowel system lists seven short vowels (/æ/, /ʌ/, /e/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, /ʊ/, /ə/), five long vowels (/ɑ:/, /ɔ:/, /i:/, /u:/, /ɜ:/), eight diphthongs (/eə/, /ɪə/, /ʊə/, /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/, /əʊ/) and also triphthongs (/eɪə/, /aɪə/, /ɔɪə/, /aʊə/, /əʊə/) that do not occur in Czech at all.

2.2.2.1.1.4 Czech and English Vowel System Comparison

Comparing the two vowel systems, the English one is much more complex than the Czech one. Therefore, in English there are such vowel sounds that Czech language does not contain. Specifically, these are /æ/, /ə/ (short vowels), /ɜ:/ (long vowel), /eə/, /ɪə/, /ʊə/, /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /əʊ/ (diphthongs) as well as all the triphthongs (/eɪə/, /aɪə/, /ɔɪə/, /aʊə/, /əʊə/). As stated before, sounds that do occur in L2 but do not exist in L1 may be difficult to pronounce for learners. This may be true about the above mentioned vowels, as well.

When looking at the sounds that exist in English but do not in Czech, we may conclude that some of them, in fact, do cause difficulties to Czech speakers.

On the other hand, there are also such vowel sounds among them that should be easy to produce – like the following ones: /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/. Although these diphthongs do not occur in Czech, they should not be difficult to articulate. The reason is as follows. Even though they are not considered diphthongs in Czech, unlike English, the individual sounds do occur in that language. Therefore, Czech speakers should be able to produce them without any problem.

2.2.2.1.2 Consonants

2.2.2.1.2.1 General Characteristics

As opposed to vowels, when producing consonant sounds, there is always an obstruction to the air flow as it passes from the larynx to the lips (Roach,

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2009, p. 10). The obstruction, that interrupts or causes limitations to the flow of air, is represented by various positions of tongue, teeth or lips.

Consonants can be classified according to voicing, manner and place of articulation. All consonants can be either voiced or voiceless according to whether during their production one’s vocal cords – described by Denham and Loebeck as “two muscular bands of tissue that stretch from front to back in the larynx“ (2009, p. 7) – vibrate or not. When they do, this process is called voicing and the consonants accompanied by voicing are voiced. If they are not accompanied by voicing, they are voiceless.

The manner of articulation refers to the way speech sounds are pronounced, “especially with respect to the airflow“ (Denham and Lobeck, 2012, p. 78). Thus, we distinguish between plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, approximants and laterals. Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin describe these kinds of consonants (1996, p. 46) as follows. When pronouncing plosives, the airstream is blocked or stopped before sound release. Fricatives are described as being produced by forcing the air “through a narrow passageway in the mouth or throat creating continuous friction“ (1996, p. 46). Affricates begin as plosives and end as fricatives. Nasals can be characterised, according to these authors, by the air escaping through the nose. Approximants, are pronounced with rather no obstruction hindering the airstream to go out of the mouth so that no friction can be heard. Finally, when pronouncing laterals, according to Westermann and Ward (2013, p. 68), the air passage in the middle of the mouth is stopped and the air is allowed to escape along one or both sides of the tongue.

The last criterion is the place of articulation that refers to the place where

“stricture, constriction or obstruction is created“ and what articulators are

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involved (Odisho, 2005, p. 36). As for this point of view, we distinguish between bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palato-alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal consonants. To define these, Brinton’s (2000, p. 23-24) publication has been used as a source. Bilabial consonants are made by using the two lips. To produce labiodentals “the lower lip is brought up against the upper front teeth while the tongue is in the position“ (Brinton, 2000, p. 23). Dentals are produced by the tip of the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth. Alveolar consonants are produced by the tip of the tongue on or near the alveolar ridge.

Palato-alveolar consonants are produced by raising the tip of the tongue to an area located between the palate and the alveolar ridge. To produce palatal consonants, the front of the tongue must be brought up against the hard palate.

Velar consonants are produced by the back of the tongue approaching the velum.

When pronouncing a glottal, the last group of consonatns, the vocal cords make a brief closure – they function as articulators. To imagine how each group of consonant is produced and which articulators and body parts are included, an illustration has been included below.

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Figure 4 Speech Organs (Concepcion, De La Cruz and Enriquez, 1994, p.

18)

2.2.2.1.2.2 Czech Consonant System The concerete Czech consonants categorisation can be seen below.

Figure 5 Table of Czech Consonants (Skaličková, 1982, p. 108)

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2.2.2.1.2.3 English Consonant System

Similarly, the concerete English consonants categorisation can be seen below.

Figure 6 Table of English Consonants (Roach, 1991, p. 62)

2.2.2.1.2.4 Czech and English Consonant System Comparison

When comparing the two consonant systems (the Czech and the English one), we come to the conlusion that each of the two languages is comprised of consonants that do appear in one language but do not in the other. Namely, these are:

ď /ɟ/, ch /x/, ň /ɲ/, ř /r̝/, ť /c/ – These are consonants that do exist in Czech but do not in English.

/w/, /θ/ and /ð/ are consonant sounds that do exist in English but do not in Czech. Although the consonant “w“ does occur in Czech, it is pronounced as /v/.

Thus, both “v“ (as in vlk, voda or vláda) and “w“ (as in WC, western or whisky) are pronounced in the same manner – as /v/. However; in English, where both consonants do occur, too, the pronunciation of these is different. Consonant “v“

is pronounced as /v/, which is a labiodental, and “w“, which is a bilabial, is

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pronounced as /w/. In conlusion, the fact that Czech contains both consonants

“w“ and “v“, as well as English where, unlike Czech, these two are pronounced differently, may be the reason why Czech speakers may mispronounce “w“ as /v/. The consonants that do not appear in Czech at all are /θ/ (as in think, thick or theatre) and /ð/ (as in weather, father or breathe). These may be uneasy to pronounce for Czech speakers.

There is also another thing, when comparing the Czech and English consonant system and focusing on pronunciation, that Czech learners of English should take into consideration. This is pronunciation of “-s“ ending that appears at the end of regular plural nouns, verbs in third person and as a part of the possessive case; and “-ed“ ending that appears in past tense, sometimes in adjectives as well as in some past participles. Thus, this issue should be rather relevant to Czech speakers learning English because due to the Czech and English differences in this area, they might be prone to face difficulties (as for their pronunciation). Before comparing Czech and English in this area, it is necessary to state that there are voiced and voiceless consonants, as has already been mentioned. Concretely, the English voiced consonants are (/b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /w/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /r/, /l/, /j/) and the voiceless ones are (/p/, /k/, /s/, /h/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/). In addition, in Czech, as well as in English, there are such voiced consonants that have their voiceless counterparts. The English ones are:

/b/ and /p/, /d/ and /t/, /g/ and /k/, /v/ and /f/, /ð/ and /θ/, /z/ and /s/, /ʒ/ and /ʃ/ and finally /dʒ/ and /tʃ/. This is important to know due to the fact that in English the final consonants “-s“ and “-ed“ are sometimes pronounced as /s/ and /d/, as it is written (e.g. in stops /stɒps/ or begged /begd/) but sometimes as their

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counterparts /z/ and /t/, although in the written form there is /s/ and /d/ (as in cumstoms /kʌstəmz/ or touched /tʌtʃt/. This is because in English, it is important which sounds precede the “-s“ or “-ed“ ending. The rules are as follows. If the ending “-s“ is preceded by the voiceless consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /h/, /f/, /θ/, it is pronounced as /s/ (as in pets /pets/). However; if it is preceded by the voiced consonants /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /w/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /r/, /l/, /j/ or by vowel sounds, it is pronounced as /z/ (as in things /θɪŋz/). Finally, when the ending “-s“ is preceded by /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/ it is pronounced as /ɪz/ (as in beaches /biːtʃɪz/). As for the “-ed“ ending, if it is preceded by the voiceless consonants /p/, /k/, /s/, /h/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/ it is pronounced as /t/ (as in asked /ɑːskt/).

When it is preceded by the voiced consonants /b/, /g/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /dʒ/, /w/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /r/, /l/, /j/ or by any vowel sounds it must be pronounced as /d/ (as in judged / dʒʌdʒd/). However; if the “-ed“ ending follows the consonants /t/ or /d/, it is pronounced as /ɪd/ (as in started /stɑːtɪd/). Thus, the sound preceding the mentioned endings is of great importance and influences the way they are pronounced. In Czech; however, all final consonants, both voiced and voiceless, which means that “s“ and “d“ as well, are always pronounced as voiceless (as in les /les/ or lez /les/, led /let/ or let /let/) and the sounds preceding them do not play a role.

2.2.2.2 Suprasegmental Level

2.2.2.2.1 General Characteristics

Next to the segmental phonological features – phonemes, segments – there are also suprasegmental phonological features that together form an acoustic side of the sounds of a language. Namely, these are for example stress,

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intonation, rhythm or aspects of connected speech. These features can be described as “features of speech which generally apply to groups of segments“

(Kelly, 2000, p. 3) in comparison with segmental phonological level that deals with individual sound segments. In other words, according to Krug, and Schlüter (2013, p. 244) suprasegmental phonological level comprises phonological units larger than individual speech sounds.

Since suprasegmental features go beyond individual phonemes (supra means over or above), they may be considered by language learners as something additional, extra and above the basic level of a language. Ottheimer (2012, p. 62) describes suprasegmental features of a language as additional modifications that every language makes use of. Certain aspects of suprasegmental level may sometimes be considered “not so important“ for language learners to acquire. One of these may, for example, be word juncture (so called linking, an aspect of connected speech, that refers to a transition or link between sounds or words) that may rather indicate language proficiency or a good sense of musicality than cause cases of misunderstaning. To demonstrate

this – one should be understood when saying

"I_understand_that_you_want_to_buy_two_apples“ instead of

"I_/j/_understand_that_you_want_to_buy_two_/w/_apples.“ even though linking does not occur. Here, the omission of linking may not be considered crucial because even if it is not used, it should not come to incomprehension. However;

Paltridge and Starfield claim that other suprasegmental features, as for example intonation and stress, “can lead to greater problems in communication than mispronunciation at the segmental level“ (2012, p. 273). They emphasise the importance of stress and intonation (suprasegmental features) when they claim

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that “too many unstressed syllables combined with regular reductions in rapid speech can reduce a sentence to something incomprehensible“ (2012, p. 273).

What is more, misplaced word stress can lead to confusion – compare /ˈrekɔːd/

(a noun) and /reˈkɔːd/ (a verb) or /ˈprezənt/ (a noun) and /preˈzənt/ (a verb). It is obvious from the previous example that the position of a word stress may be an important distinctive feature. Thus, ignoring suprasegmental aspects may sometimes be misleading.

It is important to mention that language learners may consider it difficult to acquire suprasegmental features without presence of a native model. Zhang claims that “the adoption of a native model was proven to be an effective means in helping students to become aware the importance of suprasegmental features to enhance intelligibility comunicability“ (2004, p. 253). Thus, it may be even more difficult for leanguage learners to acquire suprasegmental pronunciation features without having a native model. In that case, it might be beneficial to make use of other possibilities to get in touch with English spoken by native speakers – as, for example, listening to CDs, watching documents, etc. The more difficult it may be not only for learners to acquire the target language without the native model but especially for nonnative teachers to teach it. A possible solution, according to Fraser (2000, p. 2), may be to take courses in pronunciation and especially have access to high-quality materials. These could be for example journals or pronunciation books, manuals or guides.

Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (2010, p. 11) indicate that in ESL both segmental as well as suprasegmental level should be treated equally. The reason, according to these authors, is that “both an inability to distinguish suprasegmental features (such as intonation differences between yes / no and

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alternative questions) and an inability to distinguish sounds that carry a high functional load (such as /ɪ/ in list and /i:/ in least) can have a negative impact on the oral communication – and the listening comprehension abilities – of nonnative speakers of English“ (2010, p. 11). Imagine someone saying the following yes / no question. “They weren’t at the party, were they?“. Intonation used plays a role. When rising, it indicates that the speaker is uncertain about what has been said or a feels surprised. However; if intonation goes down, it shows speaker‘s expectation of agreement. Therefore, it is true that the ability to distinguish suprasegmental features may be crucial. The ability to distinguish between particular segmental features is important as well, as it is important to distinguish between /v/ and /w/ in the following sentences: “That’s a beautiful veil.“ /veɪl/ and “That’s a beautiful whale.“ /weɪl/. To draw a conclusion, teaching segmental and suprasegmental features of pronunciation is considered being important for learners‘ comprehension and comprehensibility.

2.2.2.2.2 Suprasegmental Features Choice

There is a range of suprasegmental phonetic features comprising for example word and sentence stress, aspects of connected speech (such as linking, rhythm or elision), weak forms and others. This thesis; however, deals only with one single suprasegmental feature – intonation. The choice of this feature is based on the analysis of the textbooks and at the same time students‘ L2 level was taken into consideration. It has been considered that although features like linking or elision do not occur in the analysed set of textbooks, such features are too advanced for the target group to be occupied with, whereas intonation seems to be important to teach. Generally, Czech pupils often do not follow the English

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intonation patterns. Therefore, this feature was considered suitable to deal with during the research.

2.2.2.2.3 Intonation

2.2.2.2.3.1 General Characteristics

Kelly (2000, p. 86) defines intonation as “the way voice goes up and down in pitch“ during one’s discourse. He claims (2000, p. 86) that it is an important way to express one’s thoughts or attitudes. When teaching intonation in a language classroom, Kelly recommends to focus on practice rather than theory.

By practising intonation, learners should realise how intonation determines meaning, attitude and shows one’s opinion (Kelly, 2000, p. 86). Each language has particular intonation patterns that should be followed. Therefore, the situation may occur that L2 learners will “transfer the intonation habits of the L1 to the L2“ (Kelly, 2000, p. 12), which is incorrect if the patterns are different.

This may possibly result in misunderstanding, which is undesirable.

2.2.2.2.3.2 English Intonation

Wells (2006, p. 15) generalises that intonation is falling for statements, Wh- questions, exclamations and commands and rising for Yes / No questions.

Moreover, he describes the types of intonation more precisely (distinguishing between high fall, low fall, rise-fall, high rise, low rise, mid level and fall-rise) but for purposes of this thesis, it is sufficient to distinguish between the two main types – rising () and falling (). What is more, Wells, a professor of phonetics, describes which kind of intonation belongs to which sentence types in detail. However, for the purposes of this paper, again, it is enough to distinguish between the following: intonation in questions with “or“, intonation in a list,

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intonation in up or down tags, intonation in Wh- questions and finally intonation in Yes / No questions. These sentence types follow the following rules.

Intonation usually goes down at the end in questions with “or“. Thus, when giving someone a question “Would you like potatoes or rice?“, intonation should be falling at the end of a sentence. There are some examples: “Would you like potatoes  or rice ?“, “Are his eyes blue  or green ?“, “Are they eating in  or out  this evening?“.

When talking about items in a list, English native speakers use a partial rise in their intonation in order to indicate the listener that they are not done giving a list or series of things in their speech (Intonation: Making Lists in English. elementalenglish [online]). In other words, intonation goes “up on the last strongly stressed word in each phrase, and down at the end“ (Baker, 2006, p.

22). Here is an example sentence: “Yesterday I bought a skirt , a coat , a cap

 and some T-shirts .“

Another category is intonation in up or down tags. In fact, question tags are short questions that a speaker puts at the end of a sentence, particularly in spoken English (Question tags. British Council [online]). Intonation of these questions can be either rising or falling – if it is rising, the speaker shows a feeling of surprise (“You don’t remember my name, do you ?“) or insecurity (“Paul was at work on Friday, wasn’t he ?“) Usually, there is often a slight pause before an up tag. When the intonation in a question tag goes down it indicates that the speaker expects agreement (“They weren’t speaking English, were they ?“). Since intonation tags can signal the speaker’s surprise, uncertainty or certainty toward his / her statement, it can be said that intonation in question tags has to do with pragmatics.

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Intonation in questions beginning with a Wh- word is usually falling, as for example in “What time is it ?“.

In comparison with Wh- questions, intonation in Yes / No questions goes up at the end. Therefore, there is usually a rising intonation. There are some example sentences: “Were your new shoes expensive ?“, “Are you ready to go

?“ or “Are you angry ?“.

2.2.2.2.3.3 Czech and English Intonation Patterns Comparison

When briefly comparing the Czech and English intonation patterns, we come to the following conclusion. Since intonation in statements is generally falling in Czech as well as in English, Czech learners should not have problems in this area. As Skaličková (1982, p. 52 and 54) claims, English and Czech follow the same intonation patterns also in exclamatory sentences and commands (“What a handsome boy you are !“ – “Ty jsi ale hezký kluk !“,

“Close the window !“ – Zavři to okno !“) where the intonation is falling.

According to her, Wh- questions have falling intonation in both languages, too (“How old are you ?“ – “Kolik ti je let ?“). She claims that in Yes / No questions there is a rising intonation both Czech and English (“Do you like sweets ?“ – “Máš rád sladkosti ?).

Although English and Czech have a lot in common regarding intonation patterns, Czech speakers may seem not to follow the rules as required. Thus, intonation has been chosen as the suprasegmental feature that will be dealt with within the research.

2.2.3 Integrating Pronunciation into English Lessons

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When teaching pronunciation, teachers should take both the students‘

needs as well as curriculum into consideration. Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (2010, p. 281) claim that since “pronunciation is not always explicitely included even in a speaking course, teachers need to find ways to integrate pronunciation into existing curriculum and textbook materials“, which may not always be such an easy task. Many teachers, for example, often reason that they do not have enough time to devote pronunciation teaching. In such cases, Celce- Murcia‘s, Brinton‘s, and Goodwin’s (2010, p. 282) suggestion to integrate pronunciation with practising skills such as speaking or listening might be a suitable and effective solution.

Not only the already mentioned authors describe recommendations for pronunciation teaching within the context of the communicative method of teaching that is, according to Gilakjani (2011, p. 10), employed in most ESL / EFL classrooms. In this respect, every syllabus should be designed to “teach pronunciation as an integral part of oral communication“ (Gilakjani, 2012, p.

119). This may be an effective way to teach pronunciation because pronunciation is an inseparable aspect of each language that always occurs within spoken discourse.

Morley is one of the those who favours teaching pronunciation in a communicative context claiming that “a broadly constructed communicative- cognitive approach is more effective than a narrowly constructed articulatory phonetics approach“ (Morley, 1998, p. 22). Afterwards, he specifies how to incorporate communicative pronunciation teaching into language teaching. He states that “the first step is to establish long-range oral communication goals of the language functions“, the purposes for which we use it (e.g. expressing wish

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or asking for a permission), “that learners will need in their English-speaking interactions; and to analyse both the spoken discourse (actual speech patterns) that learners need to accomplish and the language situations“ in which particular pronunciation needs may occur (Morley, 1998, p. 22). The next stept, according to Morley, is to design a syllabus containing both communicative task and pronunciation activity. What is more, he emphasises the importance of setting realistic goals. The reason might be that too unrealistic goals could discourage the learner form further learning. In addition, the fact that one would not reach the (unrealistic) goals might negatively influence his / her self-confidence, which is undesirable. Morley states that setting realistic goals should lead to achieving so called functional intelligibility and functional communicability. He states that the functionally intelligible language is “easy to understand and not distracting to listeners, even though it is accented“ (Morley, 1998, p. 22) while functional communicability refers to the fact that language should “effectively serve the learner’s individual communicative needs“ (Morley, 1998, p. 22).

Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin describe the knowledge teachers must have, according to them, “to efficiently address pronunciation in the language curriculum” (2010, p. 43-44). The following diagram shows it.

Figure 7 Required Knowledge Base for Teaching Pronunciation (Celce- Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin, 2010, p. 44)

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2.3 Methodology of the Work and Pronunciation Teaching Methods 2.3.1 Methodology of the Work

Methodology of this paper includes an analysis of a set of primary and lower-secondary English textbooks (Project, Second Edition) from the phonetic point of view. On the basis of that analysis, potential supplementary pronunciation exercises will be provided, if needed. In that case, the author of the thesis will prove the effectivity of these exercises and activities by using them during the research conducted at primary and lower-secondary school.

Finally, a conclusion will be drawn. For the purposes of this paper, a study of appropriate literature will be required.

2.3.2 Pronunciation Teaching Methods

When teaching pronunciation within the communicative approach that is, as has already been mentioned, employed in most ESL / EFL classrooms, teachers, Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996, p. 8-10) suggest the following methods to do so – listening and imitation, phonetic training, minimal pair drills, contextualised minimal pairs, visual aids, tongue twisters, reading aloud / recitation or recordings of learners‘ production. The fact that pronunciation practice activities put the emphasis primarily on accurate pronunciation at the word level, which means giving priority to the segmental level, is, according to the recently mentioned authors, the reason why in the mid- to late 1970s the representers of communicative approach to language teaching refused most of the mentioned techniques and materials for pronunciation teaching, considering them as “being incompatible with teaching language as communication“ (Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin, 1996, p. 10). Therefore,

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they began to include also suprasegmental features (such as intonation, stress or rhythm) in pronunciation teaching. Nowadays, segmental and suprasegmental level is given rather the same attention.

When teaching pronunciation, teachers should be aware of so called phonological processing skills. These refer to different stages that take place when learning pronunciation. Their sequence is of great importance and should be taken into consideration in order to teach or learn pronunciation effectively.

Kersner and Wright (2012, p. 101) describe and order the phonological processing skills as follows. First of all, the two authors name speech perception or input processing skills. These refer to the fact that learners must be given comprehensible input before they start speaking in a target language. Thus, first, they learn by hearing and understanding a message before language production.

According to Kersner and Wright (2012, p. 101), the speech perception includes hearing, auditory discrimination and phoneme classification. Secondly, they name memory and pattern recognition processing skills. These refer to storage and retrieval. It means that language must be remembered so that it can later be used. Thirdly, Kersner and Wright (2012, p. 101) mention speech production or output processing skills that is the final stage when the language is finally produced. In other words, the process of learning sounds can only occur when a learner receives sufficient amounts of comprehensible input before he / she is required to speak. The sounds that one is able to hear are then stored so that they can later be successfully retrieved. Under these conditions, one should be able to produce sounds of the target language.

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Generally, not only when teaching pronunciation but also when teaching other language aspects and areas, one should distinguish between productive and receptive skills. As for teaching pronunciation through receptive skills, students learn to differentiate between phonemes. It is important that learners practise receptive skills because they cannot say what they do not hear. As Kelly (2000, p. 15) claims, in the case learners are able to hear particular L2 sounds and distinguish between them, they should be able to produce such sounds afterwards. Therefore, the first lessons in pronunciation should involve learners listening and identifying particular sounds, rather than speaking – producing them. First of all, it is a good idea to deal with phonemes in isolation before learners recognise them in words. Finally, it is suitable to progress to sentence level. The biggest learners’ success, then, is to be able to communicate accurately in a natural conversation.

According to Kelly (2000, p. 13), pronunciation teaching should be a planned issue. This is why he (2000, p. 13) claims that teachers must be able to plan a lesson or set a timetable of work to be covered. He adds that at the same time; however, it is necessary to employ so called reactive teaching, which refers to “the situation in which the teacher’s choice of lesson objectives, lesson content and teaching strategy are determined by the teacher’s perceptions of students‘ concerns or interests“ (Cooper and McIntyre, 1996, p. 126). In other words, teachers should be able to both follow the syllabus and take the learners‘

particularities into account. Kelly adds (2000, p. 13-14) that teachers should anticipate the pronunciation features learners may struggle with in advance and take these assumptions into consideration when designing a lesson plan.

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Regarding the way to teach learners‘ pronunciation features, Celce- Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996, p. 52) emphasise the presentation of sounds to learners with providing them with appropriate description of how sounds are articulated. Concretely, teachers can inform learners about how particular phonemes are produced by providing them with pronunciation diagrams that depict positions of articulators during sounds production. Another possibility is to describe the position and then show the sound production to learners. Since sometimes learners are not able to see the position of articulators during particular phoneme articulation, they might find such diagrams or descriptions helpful. Such a pronunciation diagram describing how the vowel sound /æ/ is produced can be seen below (see Figure 8).

Figure 8 Articulation of /æ/ (Hancock, 2012, p. 12)

From the methodological point of view, it is important to mention that learners should practise distinguishing sounds from the similar ones and subsequently use them in first “more controlled and then more guided and communicative contexts“ (Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin, 1996, p. 52).

These authors and other methodologists emphasise the sequence of teaching activities that should progress from controlled practice to guided practice and subsequnetly to communicative practice. Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin

(48)

46

claim that controlled practice focuses primarily on monitoring accuracy and they describe controlled activities as those “where language production is typically limited to certain sound features, with learners‘ attention being dedicated to the accurate production of these features“ (2010, p. 47). Concrete activities classified as controlled ones are, according to them, for example, repetition practice, oral reading, tongue twisters, rhymes or short poems. They define the next stage, guided practice, as the one where the context and much of the language is provided. The authors (Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin, 2010, p. 47) claim that the learners are expected to add specific information or express meaning besides the stuff that is given. Here, the focus is on accuracy as well as on fluency. As the authors claim (Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin, 2010, p. 47), some example activities belonging to the guided ones may be information-gap exercises or cued dialogues. They (Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin, 2010, p. 48) describe also the final phase, communicative practice, claiming that it includes activities that are rather real-life and authentic and the focus is primarily on fluency but the learners should pay attention to both form and the content of the discourse. Communicative tasks, according to them, require learners to “use the newly acquired phonological feature in genuine exchanges of information“ (Celce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin, 2010, p. 48).

Activities falling into the communicative practice can, according to Celce- Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (2010, p. 48), be interviews, problem solving, storytelling, debate or role play.

An example pronunciation lesson within the communicative framework has been designed by Celce-Murcia, Brinton, Goodwin and Barry Griner

References

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